BuzzFeed: 6 reasons their serious stuff works

Could marketers use BuzzFeed's trademark style to garner more attention than straightforward list-based posts? We review the case for adopting a BuzzFeed-like approach.

As a copywriting agency we’re always interested in different ways to convey information through copy and design.

Recently we saw an interesting blog post about Economist journalist Daniel Knowles using BuzzFeed to communicate a serious topic (the state of the UK housing market) in BuzzFeed’s trademark style, which involves sensationalist headlines and posts based on humorous images and animated GIFs.

Could marketers use this technique to garner more attention than straightforward list-based posts? We review the case for adopting a BuzzFeed-like approach:

1. People are paying more attention to BuzzFeed.

Their traffic has steadily risen over the course of 2013. And now they’re tackling serious issues and getting attention. As the RSA’s Anthony Painter noted in his post, Daniel Knowles’ Buzzfeed piece received much more attention than a comparable piece on the Guardian website.

It’s definitely worth experimenting with. Painter points out that the BuzzFeed housing crisis article had far higher social media engagement than an equivalent article on the Guardian’s website (417 tweets versus 31 at his time of writing).